NATIONAL VIDEO

Woman charged in hit-and-run at school bus stop

2 students hit but not seriously hurt in incident

Georgia State Patrol troopers and local law enforcement stand along Monroe Drive Monday afternoon where a white SUV lies off the road down an embankment. Law enforcement members think the vehicle was involved in an earlier hit and run on nearby Griffin Cirlcle. The driver fled the scene.

A Dahlonega woman has been charged in a hit-and-run at a school bus stop that resulted in minor injuries to two Hall County schoolchildren.

Megan Daniels, 29, faces several charges, including leaving the scene of an accident, improper passing and driving without a license, in the incident, which took place at 3 p.m. today on Griffin Circle, which is near Interstate 985.

The children, students at Chicopee Woods Elementary School, were struck when a vehicle ran through a school bus stop signal, with the driver leaving the scene, according to a Hall County school system news release.

One of the students, knocked to the pavement, was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center for evaluation. The other student, whose arm was struck, wasn’t transported.

The children’s parents, notified by officials, arrived later at the scene, as did Chicopee Woods Principal Hank Ramey and Jewel Armour, the system’s executive director of transportation.

The students described the vehicle as a white Ford Explorer, said Trooper Jonathan Munger, spokesman for Georgia State Patrol’s Post 6 in Gainesville.

About 10 minutes later, the Explorer was found by Gainesville police at the bottom of an embankment off Allen Creek Road near Monroe Drive, Munger said.

A Gainesville K-9 unit was used to search for occupants of the vehicle, Daniels eventually was found “hiding behind a building” in an industrial area off Monroe Drive, Munger said.

Authorities were able to determine that Daniels was rounding a curve after leaving the school bus scene and lost control of her vehicle, which went down the embankment and struck a tree, the trooper said.

Daniels, who was taken to the Hall County Jail, said she was traveling with two friends, Cory Maddox and Mary Ward, who also left the scene.

They haven’t been found, and Munger didn’t have exact ages or other information about them.

Daniels didn’t give any particular explanation as to what had happened, and alcohol and drugs “weren’t a factor,” Munger said.

“It took us a long time to finally get the full story from her,” he added.

After the accident scene was cleared, Bus 2005 continued on the afternoon route with the other Chicopee Woods students on board, school officials said.